As It Should Be
by minitureforceofnature
Summary: As much as he doesn't want to admit it, Stiles knows the pack is… muddled. With three humans, and a set of almost incompetent teen werewolves, it's amazing how long they've gone without doing something insane like shaving Derek's eyebrows off or whatever. (Or the one time they cross paths with an equally dysfunctional pack, and we learn Stile's first name.)
1. Prologue

The couch in his living room does not need five teen werewolves squished onto it on any given day. It _really_ doesn't. Stiles sighs and curls up on a nearby loveseat to wait out the initial wiggles and light growls that signal them settling in. No matter what Derek bellows about when it comes to being prompt when arriving to pack meetings, they all just sort of show up and pile in mere minutes before the supposedly mature alpha sulks through the front door. Today is no different. He can hear the wood protesting under the weight, and it's two minutes until eight.

Right on time, Derek bangs through the front door (for once) and takes one sort-of fond look at the puppy pile that has formed before training his focus on Stiles and whoa, Allison is here too. It's starting to feel like the only person who isn't capable of pure stealth is him. But, back to the slightly less miserable alpha wolf. He's standing in the middle of the room, drawing on some endless well of patience to wait for the attention to turn his direction. By some quirk in the natural dynamics of pack life, they all settle in, in phases. Lydia's eyes snap to him first, taking in body language. Jackson follows, then Boyd and Erica when they feel the lack of movement. Isaac and Scott are the last, mainly due to Scott having fallen partially asleep.

"There's a pack, traveling along the north border."

Scott's eyes are no longer half-mast. "Why didn't we know? I ran along yesterday and-"

Lydia snorts from somewhere under Boyd's shoulder. Scott's patrols are legendary for instigating species wars. Like the time he found out about the existence of mermaids. Turns out there are subspecies. And one of them is half shark. So, yes. It's a bit of a surprise that Scott didn't accidentally mortally offend them before going along his merry way to see the rest of the Hale pack.


	2. Scott Is Getting Over It Sort Of

_Scott_

He doesn't really know all that much about Derek. He knows about that horrible night which left that stick house and the land around it smell like death and sadness, he's heard all about Kate, but out side of those facts? There's only a handful of things here and there; most of them aren't even worthy of being mentioned. Mentioning that just earns him a flat stare from anyone who's spent more than five minutes at a pack meeting. Really, the only fact he would have actually liked to know about is that there's another Hale pack, up north somewhere in Oregon. As in a group of werewolves related to Derek who might be willing to lend some knowledge.

Yeah, that would have been really freaking helpful to know. Even though Allison says he can be too focused on small things, he's pretty confident in his ability to pick up on incredibly important things. Okay, besides the whole club thing. That was totally an exception.

Lucky for his own hide, their sister pack is taking a trip down to see what's become of Beacon Hills, and to hopefully form a bond between Derek and their Alpha. So, he hasn't really done any damage as the second-in-command of a young pack. Having spent the longest time as a wolf out of all the second generation hasn't improved on his social skills when it comes to making a good impression. Skills that he needed between now, on Stiles' couch discussing the upcoming meeting; and when they meet the pack Derek can't really tell anyone anything about because of some family argument he refuses to explain. It's like those endless parallels he used to get trapped in when he thought about telling Mom.

"- has her own bestiary, which might be nice, y'know, seeing as I'm the only one who ever actually attempts to update it," Stiles sighs into his screen. Scott tunes in at the mention of the bestiary, but soon drops it in favor of dissecting and naming the scents imbedded in the couch. They'll be up all night, doing this. Talking, now and then, but mostly just trying to forget all of the memories they shouldn't have at their age and be Scott and Stiles without the inability to make cohesive decisions. Scott is sprawled on the lone couch crushed in a corner of the room, watching Stiles flip through the translated bestiary and secretly wishing he wasn't so familiar with some of the entries.

* * *

Mornings in his house would be so much easier if he didn't have the upcoming meeting weighing on his mind. Which is why he just mumbles at the Sheriff from his spot on the couch and goes back to his state of half-sleep that won't be broken until Stiles kicks him out.


	3. Stiles Meets Cool Lesbian Werewolves

New Chapter! If a Beta would be up to talking about it, I might be able to get these up faster :( Sadly, no one has stepped forward so I'm going with once a month.

* * *

For a meeting between two sets of people who had no previous contact with each other are potentially the largest threat either of the two have faced, they all get along like, well, a house on fire. No, Stiles doesn't think it's funny. Well, only a bit along the lines of choosing to laugh rather than cry. He keeps his little train of thought to himself and focuses on the two people standing just over the territory line. Derek Hale is the least stable person he's met. It's wise not to overstay a welcome that has not been officially given.

The Alpha of the Merder-Hales is actually a pair of betas named Alex and Cole, who – aside from the fact that they seem hell bent on keeping themselves in the line of sight at all costs – have been nothing but truthful about any of the weirdly probing questions Derek has asked. Stiles likes to think he's not the only person silently wondering how a pair of betas rose to the title of alpha within a pack; Erica and Lydia's ruthlessness alone has shown him it's possible, but seeing it with his own eyes really lets their behavior sink in. It makes him want to settle behind his computer screen and research and ask them thousands of questions.

Cole is tall, lean and Stiles can already tell she's a bit scatterbrained. It reminds him of his mom when she would dance around the kitchen, singing along to Motown and dropping spices in various pots and pans. The beta's hair is so blonde it's near white, and it's pretty much held together with a chopstick and the sheer willpower of someone who spends too may nights awake until the sun rises. She smiles with almost all her teeth, leaning forward in her boots like she can sense the war going on in Derek's brain. It's obvious she is not the Hale in the pack.

She grins at Derek from across the clearing, "Alpha Hale," she makes some sort of gesture of greeting, "We renew our family ties and obligations under the same moon they were created under." Her inflections are weird and give a strange lyrical twist to her lines. Stiles squints automatically, trying to place it before realizing she's staring right back. He stops, and she blinks slowly at him, _no harm done_.

Derek pulls a new expression Stiles has never seen before, something of a cross between relieved and smug; and nods. He returns the gesture and focuses on the other Beta leader, "I extend my welcome to you, cousin."

Alex has shaved her head on all sides, letting the hair on top grow and be braided into this plait interwoven with various pieces of fabric and… possibly chain mail like some sort of Viking princess. It sits on top of her skull in this glossy black mess, like she got dressed in a fashionable hurricane. She's wary of Derek's pack (Stiles being included on a trial basis) and stands beside Cole with the stance of someone a heartbeat away from cutting their losses and getting the hell out of dodge, but still offers a small smile, "I seek nothing more than your happiness and the ability to share the moonshine with you."

Derek visibly goes from even more tense than he usually is to his normal level of alertness he maintains while out in public. "I offer my den and the eyes of the past in return."

Stiles is perfectly fine with wanting to know more about them from behind the safety of the little half circle of betas that separates the humans from Derek, and by extension, the cool new werewolves in town, but with what sounds like an invitation from Derek he has no problem with asking the list of questions Derek either can't or won't tell him.

There's a human in the other Hale pack. Two, really. After Cole had kind of wandered across the invisible territory line, Alex lead the rest of their little pack with the forced casualness of a mother trusting her children with a police officer. It's Alex and Cole, five betas, and two humans. After her original skittishness fades, Alex proves to be warm and gentle towards Derek and the pack, and Cole comes off as a little less than trusting -something about familial bonds and werewolf politics- her being the in-law and a bitten wolf leaves Cole without a little wolfy VIP pass.

They're scattered around Derek's living room in his stupidly big and lonely apartment that sits square in the middle of their territory. Three betas from the other Hale pack explain what they can to Lydia and Boyd seeing as everyone else (Stiles included) is more interested in the human with a wolfsbane coated baseball bat.

* * *

_Next Time:_

_Cole smirks at Jackson across the table, "You trying to catch flies, or do you always look like a freshman at a strip club?" _


End file.
